Dallas Cowboys Blog

NFL’s final four put Cowboys’ status into perspective

The Dallas Cowboys last played in the NFC Championship game in 1995. The four remaining teams, which will play in the conference title games on Sunday, illustrate how far the Cowboys are from getting back to that level.

For all the attention paid to offense, the game is still about defense. All four finalists ranked among the top six for fewest points allowed during the regular season. The New York Jets were the “worst” of the group with 304 points allowed.
The Cowboys gave up 436 points, second-highest total in the league.

Only three teams had at least 40 sacks while allowing fewer than 20 points: Green Bay, Pittsburgh and the Jets. Chicago, the fourth finalist, just missed. The Bears. allowed 17.9 points per game but had only 34 sacks.
The Cowboys had 35 sacks and allowed 27.3 points per game.

And one last item.
Three finalists have coaches whose background is on defense: Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Chicago’s Lovie Smith and Rex Ryan of the New York Jets. Green Bay’s Mike McCarthy is the only finalist coach whose background, like that of new Cowboys’ coach Jason Garrett, is on offense.